Decisive actions are needed and they are impossible without the contact group, Russia's deputy foreign minister says

Kindergarten shelled in Donetsk area, Ukraine

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Russia hopes that the Contact Group on Ukraine will meet as quickly as possible and will take all effort for this, Russian State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told TASS on Friday.

“The situation is so acute that decisive actions are needed. They are impossible without the contact group,” he said.

“We are taking all effort to hold a meeting,” Karasin added.

According to Karasin, the Contact Group on Ukraine should discuss the situation over shellings in south-eastern regions.

“We hope that this [a meeting of the Contact Group] will take place. This is really needed, this is objectively needed to convene the group and debate these issues [shellings],” he said.

Transport stop shelling in Donetsk

A public transport stop in Donetsk came under fire in the morning rush hour on Thursday. At least 8 people were killed and another 17 were wounded, according to the latest data by the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic’s Emergencies Ministry.

Earlier reports said citing doctors that some 13 people were killed.

According to preliminary information, the mortar fire was opened from a minibus. A trolleybus with passengers and a car caught fire. An OSCE report on the incident said the shell was fired from a mortar or an artillery gun in the northwest.

Police in the Donetsk republic believe that Ukrainian troops are behind the terrorist attack.

The attack comes following the January 13 tragedy in Volnovakha, some 60 kilometers to the southwest of Donetsk, when a shell hit a bus, killing 13 civilians and wounding at least 16 others.